1885.] Anthropology. 211 
ably removable at pleasure) and with the water by ladders, 
These ladders, as appears from an example found at Chavannes, 
were made of a single stang with holes for the rungs, which pro- 
truded on either side, 
The lake-dwellers, besides being carvers of stone, were workers 
in wood and skillful boat-builders, At Fenil and Chavannes have 
‘been found an ox yoke, fragments of tables, benches and doors, 
toy boats, hammers and spades, most of which Dr. Goss has pre- 
sented to the museum of Berne. One of the best preserved 
canoes yet discovered was found in the stone age station of 
Vingrare (Lake Bienne) nearly three feet under the mud. The 
material is oak, the form of the stern square, like that of boats of 
the present day, the bow is pointed and spear-shaped. Its length 
is thirty-one feet two and a half inches, and in width it varies 
from twenty-nine and a half inches to thirty-five anda half inches. 
In order to prevent warping, the canoe was repeatedly washed 
with hot linseed oil, and afterwards rubbed with sand and wax, to 
fill up the interstices, by which means it has been kept in its 
original shape. With smaller objects of wood the same end is 
served by keeping them several weeks in alcohol or glycerine. 
Yew, however, is an exception; its durability exceeds that of 
oak; articles made from it show no signs of decay, and dry 
without warping.—[TZo de continued] 
THE Antiquity oF Man.—Professor Frederick W. Putnam, 
Curator of the Peabody Museum of American Archzology at 
Cambridge, made a few remarks at the semi-annual meeting of 
e American Antiquaries Society, bearing on the antiquity of 
man in America, based upon objects recently received at the 
museum, 
He presented photographs of four blocks of tufa, each con- 
taining the imprint of a human foot. These blocks were cut from 
a bed of tufa sixteen feet from the surface, near the shore of 
Lake Managua, in Nicaragua, and were obtained by Dr. Earl 
Flint, who has been for several years investigating the archeology 
of Nicaragua for the museum, and has forwarded many important 
collections from the old burial mounds and shell heaps of that 
country. The volcanic materials above the foot-prints probably 
represent several distinct volcanic eruptions followed by deposits 
of silt. In one bed, apparently of clay and volcanic-ash, six and 
one-half feet above the foot-prints, many fossil leaves were found. 
pecimens of these are now in the museum, and their specific 
determination is awaited for with interest. While there can be no 
doubt of a great antiquity for these foot-prints, only a careful 
geological examination of the locality and a study of the fossils 
in. the superimposed beds will determine whether that antiquity is 
to be counted by centuries or by geological time. 
He also exhibited a portion of the right side of a human under- 
